


Oil and Fire

by pirategangsters



Category: Gravity Falls, Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 19:37:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6127861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pirategangsters/pseuds/pirategangsters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Beast gazed down upon the crumbling statue with something near amusement. A decaying stone hand reached into the void of the unknown. It beckoned to the surrounding obscurity, but any living thing that might have answered its call stayed far away. Not even the Edelwood dared accept its unspoken invitation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Oil and Fire

As long as the great forest existed so would The Beast. The two were irrevocably intertwined-the vast wooded expanse an ancient monster, and the Beast it's gnarled beating heart. Just as a spider knows every string of its web, so the Beast knew every pulsing vein of the great unknown. Every falling leaf, every snapping twig, every rotting log the Beast felt them all ripple back to its core. And so it was no wonder that it immediately felt when the newcomer arrived. A sudden jolt pierced the murky stillness with such a sharpness that if it could have, the Beast surely would have felt pain.

But the Beast had long since stopped feeling such mortal things, and the new arrival was but a single flat voice in the thundering chorus of the woods. The Beast would not bother with such a trivial thing. It knew that soon the forest would claim another soul, soon the disruption would be extinguished, and soon he would be gifted with another Edelwood seedling to care for.

And so the Beast continued its work- tending to the trees, watching its treasured woodsman, and singing its booming aria with little regard for the newcomer. Countless lost souls wandered among the forest while the Beast lurked and the woodsman sighed. A few slipped out of reach while most joined the shadowy grove. It carried on this way for ages, time quickly being lost in the great oozing pace of the unknown. And yet despite the continuous crawl of time, that one voice never died down. Instead, it continued on seemingly as resilient and unyielding as the woods themselves. Time was difficult to measure in the unknown, but surely this was far too long for an individual to interfere. Something was resisting the song of the woods, and that was unacceptable.

The Beast maneuvered through the thick gloom with ease, greeting every twisted tree with verses of a hymn equally as old and convoluted. Every sort of creature fled its presence, each desperate to avoid its glowing gaze - a blinding brightness that accompanied unspeakable darkness. Eventually it came to the place where the discord was strongest - an obscure region deep in the bowels of the forest. Here the note rang high and grating against the solemn requiem of the woods. The note reached a screech as the Beast drew near upon the source of disturbance.

The Beast gazed down upon the crumbling statue with something near amusement. A decaying stone hand reached into the void of the unknown. It beckoned to the surrounding obscurity, but any living thing that might have answered its call stayed far away. Not even the Edelwood dared accept its unspoken invitation.

The Beast circled the oddity, an untouched island in the ocean of undergrowth. The Beast had seen beings of all sorts enter the unknown, yet there was something particular about this one. While the even triangular shape and unseeing eye did little to impress, the enormous power that seemed to radiate from the thing was unsettling. The objecting voice was but a statue, half buried in the ground - an eternity of interruption and it couldn’t even move. The Beast couldn't help but feel a sliver of respect and relief. The Beast personally summoned the Edelwood, deciding that it would like to be present to witness the disorder being choked from the statue. Just as a leafy tendril curled around the figure’s base, a flash of gold and a moment of deranged laughter shattered the heavy quiet of the unknown.

A sharp pang shot through the beast and the forest recoiled back.The beast and the woods buzzed and wreathed together in furry. A prying force had peered deep into the beast and attempted to drag out something that had long lain dormant - something that was vulnerable and human - something that must remain dormant. The unknown screamed. They had been _violated_. This was not an visitor but an intruder. A malicious force that would dare pervert the hard earned balance of the woods. This would not be tolerated. The unknown would not allow it.

ＳＩＬＥＮＣＥ the beast and the woods hissed as shoots of Edelwood sprang up around the statue. ＳＵＢＭＩＴ they commanded as the vines snaked and weaved together. ＳＬＥＥＰ they implored as the Edelwood branches locked into place encompassing the statue. Behind the rigid wall of thorny bark and leaves resided a terrible force that could never be allowed to awaken.

Thoroughly shaken, the unknown ordered the woods to guard the newly made prison. The woodsman could always be readily replaced but creating a new was beast not nearly as simple. Time and energy had to be poured into a soul before it could grow into a proper beast. The unknown could not afford to produce another, and so it tightened its grip on the Beast’s soul. The inky blackness that seeped through the Beast jealously wound itself around the creature’s shriveled soul, careful to suffocate any wink of humanity that might have surfaced. The Beast was then sent back into the forest more deeply tethered to the unknown than ever before.

If the intruder ever broke free, the equilibrium that so tenuously relied on the Beast would unravel. A monster, no matter how ancient, could not survive without its heart. And so the unknown decided that the Beast must be kept busy so that the statue’s invitation would remain eternally unfulfilled. Oil must be kept away from fire at all costs.

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to cartoon purgatory Bill. Is this crossover a thing people are into? Is this worth continuing? Is there something you'd like to happen? Hit me up in the comments-


End file.
